De Blasio 'on the verge' of deal with council on construction-safety bill

Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Wednesday that his team had worked out all but a few details of an accord with the City Council on controversial safety training legislation.

The mayor's remarks, at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn, came just a day after the City Council altered key components of the bill to make it more acceptable to de Blasio. The revised version would require workers on most job sites to complete at least 40 hours of safety instruction, down from 59 in the original proposal. De Blasio, who had resisted the notion out of fears it could stunt affordable housing construction, confirmed he would likely sign the measure into law.

"Just as I was coming here, the report I got was we're very close to a final plan. Some details are still being worked out, but very close," he said.

De Blasio scoffed at complaints from his intermittent allies at the Real Estate Board of New York that the bill exempts those who have completed union apprenticeship programs could put as many as 120,000 nonunion laborers out of work.

The mayor accused the industry group of a pattern of "overreacting" to regulation. He insisted that that the new rules are both minor and necessary to curb fatalities at development sites.

"The notion of having a minimum standard of safety training for people who are working in construction is hardly radical," he said. "The number [of hours] that I understand is, at least, on the verge of being agreed on is not an onerous one."

In a statement, REBNY Senior Vice President Carl Hum said there are not enough training providers in the city to bring the workforce into compliance with the law. Hum warned that laborers who could not afford the certification, many of them immigrants and minorities, faced permanent unemployment—even with funding the city said Wednesday would be provided to train 4,000 workers.

He also criticized the back-channel negotiation process that has brought the legislation to the brink of becoming law with little recent input from industry stakeholders.

"If there had been a public hearing, there might have been an opportunity to explore these facts further," he said dryly.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the mayor said, "We are committed to building out training programs that ensure all workers, including day laborers, local hires, MWBE’s and employees of other small construction firms, can access the training they need.”

The final version of the bill had to be complete by midnight Wednesday for it to receive a vote at the council's Sept. 27 meeting.

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